Rough Seeding

It was about a year ago, we re-opened the golf course  after going through a major renovation converting fairways to Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda, re-surfacing all putting greens and adding a few more, and  re-shaping all of the bunkers. In fact, at this time last year we were still not open to our members and still under construction. And when we did open in early October, we opened to cart path only and a golf course that was in various phases of growing in. 

A big part of the renovation was converting our fairways from cool season turf to warm season Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda. The rough and new turf around new bunkers remained cool season turf. The primary rough areas were pretty wore out from the construction processes and were in the process of being seeded with Tall Fescue, a durable cool season variety of turf which is the same turf we used around the new bunkers during the renovation.

We had allot of loose ends on many different levels to tie up after the whole renovation process, and re-establishing rough with the aforementioned Tall Fescue was just one of them. Fortunately the cooler weather of fall arrived, and all of the seed we put down germinated and established, but we never had the time to properly prepare the seedbed for wide scale, long lasting success. Never the less, the durability of the Tall Fescue began to establish itself and grass plants from last years seeding are still present today despite another summer of hardship for cool season turf throughout the region. 

Another  reminder is during renovation we chose not to convert our rough to warm season hybrid bermuda like the fairways because hybrid bermuda does not do well in shady conditions. And the trees and associated shade on our Parkland Style Golf Course, hybrid bermuda would not be the right choice of turf in those areas. 

This brings us to today and the seeding once again of our primary rough areas with Tall Fescue. We just took the last two weeks and core aerated all of the primary rough on the golf course in preparation of seeding the rough with more Tall Fescue. This seeding process is starting this week on 9/27/22 and will go through the first week, maybe second week of October. We will update with many specifics the process's we will be undertaking as we proceed, but I wanted to bullet point  some main concepts for us all to understand.

 1. We need to keep the fescue seed out of the fairways.

 2. In order to achieve this we will have to restrict carts to paths only on the holes we are working on which will be more restrictions at any given time then the last two weeks when we were aerating the rough. Cart path only holes will be plainly marked with cart path only signs. 

3. Once we open a newly seeded hole to cart traffic, it will be important to enter and exit holes through the gates and drive carts in the fairway only.

Even though we core aerified all of the rough last week, we plan to hit extremely bare areas in the rough prior to seeding one more time with shallow, solid tine aeration

The TriWave seeder will be just one of the tools we plan to use in the seeding process. Here it is in action in the rough on #1

I'm confident once we get the seed covered with topdressing as well as worked  into the soil with irrigation, the seed will not migrate into the fairways. Keeping rough areas moist while the seed germinates will be another issue we will have to face  as without adequate moisture the seed cannot swell, germinate and establish. 

The timing and our ability to focus on seeding rough aside from normal course setup should elevate our seeding efforts  this year over last. Another reminder however is our renovation converted approximately half of our course to warm season turf that can handle our summers. The other half, the rough, is still cool season turf that will need to survive next summer, and summer is coming. That's why we are promoting Tall Fescue and its's better summer durability and tolerance to other cool season varieties as well as our plan to start adding supplemental irrigation to these rough areas. Our goal is to give us the ability independently irrigate our cool season rough apart from our warm season fairways which should put us in a good spot for all of our turf  to survive summers of the future.

This supplemental irrigation work will not get done over night and establishing our rough to primarily tall fescue will take multiple passes as well. We should however, with our focused seeding efforts this fall  and addition of some supplemental irrigation, be in a better place in fall of 2023.

The Best Is Yet To Come! Thanks for your Support & Patience

 

           

Continuing The Growin

We have always indicated that 2022 would be a grow-in extension of our 2021 golf course renovation, and if you were following progress, you would have to concur. All golf course renovations have a frenzied nature about them and our 2021 renovation was  no exception as we simultaneously re-built greens & bunkers and converted fairways to hybrid bermuda. This chaotic at times, and intense pace was carried out while racing against mother nature's deadlines, as well as rushing to get our Members back out on their golf course  prior to the cold of winter

One of the late and frenzied operations  of last year was the sprigging of #12 fairway and the recovery of #17 fairway. Seventeen fairway was our beta hybrid bermuda fairway sodded in 2019 and was used as a sod farm during the 2021 renovation. Hybrid bemuda will regenerate itself after sod removal, but  #17 was in varying stages of recovery as fall approached in 2021 and #12 was the last hole to be sprigged on the last day of August. Neither of these scenarios left much time for hybrid bermuda recovery or establishment from sprigs as days were getting shorter and the warm weather required for hybrid bermuda establishment was waning. 

Fast forward to now, the summer of 2022, and the warm weather opportunity to finish what we started with these two fairways last year. In July we started an aggressive fertility campaign on these two holes as well as weaker areas in other fairways to get the hybrid bermuda establishment that dident completely fill in during our initial  grow-in season of 2021. This fertility campaign is very similar to what we did in 2021 to get the sprigs to cover before opening. Below are some on going examples of those efforts for those of you that are interested. We will continue these efforts through September while the Santa Anna is actively growing. 

Because of the late sprigging of #12 fairway last year on the last day of August, we dident have much warm weather left in the year to adequately grow in the hybrid bermuda sprigs. The warm late summer  / early fall in 2021 provided more warm growing weather then anticipated, but #12 & #17 were still behind the other fairways in establishment. We decided that it would be prudent to inter-seed these fairways with cool season grass for the winter months then transition those grasses out of the fairways in the summer of 2022.

This picture from #12 fairway illustrates some of these overseeded cool season turf areas that are starting to thin  from summer heat while trying to grow in Granite Bay. The surrounding Santa Anna hybrid bermuda that established last year is starting to fill in the voids of the cool season turf that is checking out.

Frequent applications of fertilizer, two to three times per week, will fill in the voids that are depicted in the previous picture. How do we know this? It was exactly what we did to grow in sprigs in 2021.

Larger areas of cool season overseed from 2021 that has now checked out will require some sod repair despite our current fertility regimen on #12 & #17. We plan to start re-sodding these areas this week into the next.

We still have some good Hybrid bermuda establishment weather ahead of us, at least six weeks. Finishing what we started and filling in the voids is imperative during this time. We will be aerating and topdressing all of the fairways in mid August (more on the scheduling of this next week) which will be beneficial for the work described above as well. 

Thanks for your support and patience. The Best Is Yet To Come!

Tying Up Loose Ends - part 2

The rear level of #13 tee was stripped and leveled yesterday 3/23/22 and the middle level will get the same treatment today. Re-sodding of these levels likely the beginning of next week. They will need a couple of weeks to grow-in before we mow them down and open them so we will have tees moved forward until mid to late  April. Same thing on the two upper levels of #15. We are stripping and preparing those levels along with the new rear tournament level of #16 this week. Sodding of those starting today 3/24/22 and finishing up tomorrow. Below are some pictures of progress.

#16 Tournament Level ready for sod.

#16 Tournament Level re-sodded. Sod is overseeded hybrid bermuda. Best of both worlds.

Tournament & Granite Level of #13 Tee leveled and awaiting re-sodding.

Tee markers on 13 will be placed forward during construction and grow in of new sod. Leveled and re-sodded levels should be playable toward the middle part of April. 

Thank You !

Tying Up Loose Ends

 As mentioned in our last course update as well as in Kevin's recent GM message, we are currently preparing the golf course for daily member play and at the same time tying up 2021 renovation loose ends. Diamond Golf is back to complete a bridge abutment project on #14 along with tying up some loos ends as well. This bridge footing work will clean up the temporary fix we did years ago when a flash flood in the midst of a drought caused a huge rock to slide off the creek bank and exposed the footing of the bridge. The bridge work is a separate project that Diamond golf has been contracted to complete.

Currently working on leveling the new back tee on #16.

A lot of settling occurred on the tee levels on #13. We are going to deal with the top two  levels first and use the bottom two levels for play while we are leveling those.

Salvador Rodriguez back at Granite Bay, strategizing the repair of #14.

I will be sending out multiple short and sweet  updates with mostly pictures while we are going through this phase which also includes the lining and repair of new water feature on #12.

Thank You!

Spring In The Air

It's has been far too long since I updated progress on our new Granite Bay Golf Course creating a lengthy catch up scenario and a mea culpa from the golf course superintendent. Hope this update answers any questions you might have regarding progress on the golf course.

2021 Renovation Summary

Currently the golf course has been open just over five months to the membership after a full course renovation and turf conversion in 2021, which took eight months from February through September. As a reminder we opened the golf course to playable but not pristine conditions, with cart path only as we were still growing in the new course, but wanted to get our members back to playing golf at their club

The scope of the work that was accomplished during the eight month renovation were:

• resurfacing putting surfaces with creeping bentgrass,
• adding two additional practice putting greens and expanding the three existing ones,
• expanding and re-surfacing tees,
• converting 30 acres of fairways from a cool season mix of turf to Santa Anna hybrid bermuda (which will use significantly less water going forward),
• a complete bunker renovation and
• a driving range renovation. 

Additionally:

• there was a considerable amount of tree work done,
• substantial changes to golf hole numbers 3, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17 & 18.,
• we relocated 5,450 tons of granite in the process,
• completed a significant amount of associated irrigation work,
• along with recovery of over 50 acres of rough.

This amount of work could have gone beyond a year and squeezing it all in in eight months has produced a lot of loose ends that needed to be tied up afterwards. And we are still in process of tying those loose ends up.

#3 Green complex prior to opening. This is a great example of substantial change 
with an associated 5,450 tons of re-located granite.

Another fact to consider is that from the time we opened in October, a full 75% of our GCM man-hours have gone into maintaining and prepping for play the golf course and its associated infrastructure. That only leaves a fraction of available manhours for the important and visible non-recurring tasks such as:

• grading and cleaning spoil dumping areas created during construction,
• repairing split rail fencing damaged during construction,
• installing fairway and cart path yardage markers,
• repairing curbing, 
• refreshing landscaping,
• continued tree pruning and cleaning,
• additional tee expansion,
• irrigation head leveling and further additions.

These are just as some examples. We have a large list of these non-recurring items and are working with the Golf Committee on prioritizing them. 

I can tell you that we are currently awaiting split rail fence material that has been ordered and paid for a month ago and are caught up in the supply chain. As soon as we receive the material we will repair the fence. We plan to install the fairway markers after our initial fairway sand topdressing coming up in April. We are planning installing supplemental irrigation along pond edges on #1 & #9 in which the new windows we opened up on the pond edge will be unsightly without the irrigation help. We are also currently tree pruning and clearing brush  behind #14 green which will lead us up the left hand side of #17 fairway and behind #17 green to Volcano Ridge. This will bring us into spring and the waking up of the new Santa Anna and continued grow-in. 

Sodding a larger bare area on hole #13 on 3/8/22 with Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda. all of the patches visible in fairways is the same exact grass that was sprigged during the summer months and will blend in perfectly when all of the hybrid wakes up this spring. And it is starting to wake up RIGHT NOW! 

2022 Continued Grow In 

Santa Anna Fairways & Tees

The sprigging process of converting from cool season turf to warm season turf like we did to our tees and fairways takes time to establish. This timeframe requires establishment and grow in during the warm season of its first year. Our sprigging process didn't happen all at once, but over several months. We had to get the fairways to full turf cover prior to the onset of cool weather realizing that there was no potential for continued growth November through February. Holes that were sprigged very late in the process such as #12 & #17 we overseeded with cool season grass to provide cover the first winter as we were running out of time to completely fill them in. That cool season grass will be chemically removed when weather warms up and the underlying Santa Anna can completely fill in giving us consistent fairway turf throughout the course.

  All of our first year, first winter issues with fairways and tees such as: small areas with limited coverage, weed encroachment and lack of uniform aesthetics in areas were all entirely predictable. It won't be like this in the future. We will have different strategies available for say weed control that were not prudent for a very young stand of turf in year one.  Once the Santa Anna wakes up from year one, we will refine it with more topdressing and fertility. The fairways you are playing on in this first winter will be totally different moving forward. They will be denser, firmer and weed free.

Bare areas and many uneven areas will grow and fill in with this fertility and topdressing once the turf starts to grow again, and it is waking up right now. If there is any bare area too large to cover quickly by just growing in, we will sod it with the same Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda as we've been doing since October. The patchiness, voids and much of the unevenness will be a thing of the past once we get growing weather to further refine these surfaces.

Fresh sprigs last summer turned into a......

Established fairway. #18 on 3/9/22 starting to green up.

Surround Tie-In's & Rough

Areas around the greens that were not re-sodded during renovation are what I refer to as "tie-in" areas. These areas didn't get seeded until late in the process after we were opened this fall and we had limited success as winter set in, and everything slowed down including cool season seed germination. Winter weather has been dry and daylight hours warm but still not conducive for aggressive cool season turf growth.  (Additionally we are bumping up against a seed shortage that is stalling our current seed order for continued tie in work). That is all changing right now as this year's early spring and longer days is very advantageous for getting these tie-in's right. We plan to take advantage of the good March weather and start prepping these tie-in areas along with the rough this coming Monday 3/14/22 and seeding them when seed arrives, hopefully this week.

Great example of an area that I refer to as a tie-in area. These areas in the green surrounds mostly will start to get worked on this coming week of 3/14/22.

Putting Surfaces

We have started to cut the putting surfaces down and have been topdressing them through winter. We will need to spike them in the near future with small tines to open up airways for continued root development and removal of some of a thin organic grow-in surface layer that is disrupting irrigation infiltration. This nonaggressive procedure should not effect putting quality. Nonintrusive cultural practices are how we hope to maintain these new greens as a poa prevention strategy that also has the added benefit of a consistent putting quality that is not majorly interrupted. The trick to being able to do this is light and frequent applications of sand. 

Putting surfaces have come a long way as well. Rooting mass and depths have improved substantially and as well as surface firmness.

Bunkers

The new bunkers at Granite Bay are smaller and there are fewer of them. They were not designed to accommodate a mechanized rake so we hand rake them every morning. The bright white sand is attractive, but algae growth either thrives or is more visible in this sand, requiring frequent cultivation to aerify the sand to combat the unsightliness of the algae. Another issue with bunkers in general is during dry winter months when irrigation nor rain is occurring, the sand in the bunkers dries out quickly. We can assume our bunker sand dries out quicker then most as it all sits atop a gravel drainage field. And no matter how angular a sand is, if it is bone dry, there is potential for a buried lie. During the growing season bone dry sand is not as much of an issue as irrigation is occurring consistently, but then the algae can become a problem. Recently we have had to irrigate the course because of such dry conditions and the bunkers have benefited from it, but if the sand dries out completely, as can be the case in dry winters such as these, the bunker will play differently.

We recently started smoothing the edges of the bunkers and raking the bottoms to good reviews from membership. The feeling is balls that are traveling across the turf, not necessarily  landing on a fly, have a better chance of settling in the bottom rather then hanging up on a steep face or catching in a lip. The smooth edges are potentially more susceptible to algae growth but we'll deal with that issue if and when it occurs. Regular checking of sand depths is a BMP for maintaining these bunkers as well and we are doing this frequently, adjusting sand distribution to approximately 1.5" to 2" on the faces and 4" in the bottoms.

Greenside bunker LH #2 with smooth edges.

Infrastructure

Irrigation system mapping and various wiring issues identified during the mapping process are other behind the scenes items that we have to work on as the irrigation system is key to the golf course survivability and success. This system had substantial modifications during the renovation process and mapping of those changes is crucial to it's management, along with troubleshooting and repairing the recently identified wiring issues compromised during the construction process.

The heart of the irrigation system is our pump station that delivers the irrigation water to the course. This pump station has outlived its effectiveness and now needs replacement. This replacement is slated to commence this spring and will be done in phases as we will potentially need to irrigate the course during this period. I mention these infrastructure items because they are crucial to the courses existence and therefore, indirectly the Member experience.

The Current Granite Bay Pump Station, the heart of our entire operation. It will be replaced shortly in the spring of 2022

Gama working on some wiring issues on the irrigation 
system. These are the kind of issues that keep us up at
night, however progress is being made.

Conclusion

It will still take some time to complete what was started in February of 2021 at Granite Bay Golf Club. It's that simple. It needs a couple of birthdays. I believe this golf course will be great in 2022 as many of the establishment and grow-in issues will be a thing of the past. But I also believe this course has the potential to be even better in 2023 and beyond as it matures even further and accumulates yet another years worth of topdressing sand. Everything we need to accomplish this is in place.

• The right turf 
• The right plan
• The right partnerships

All we need now is time. 

Thanks for your patience and support

The Project 2021 Update #22

The 2021 Turf Renovation Project has been in process for over 220 days and we now have days before we re-open the course to our Members. We in the golf course maintenance department would like to thank all of our Members for their patience during this closure. Additionally we hope that the renovation will have exceeded your expectations both now, and into the future, as the new turf matures and become the great playing surfaces they are destined to be. 

Postcard view of the new #3 green at Granite Bay Golf Club

The course is the same, yet different, as one would expect from any renovation. The green complexes, and the new pure bentgrass greens are in the same locations, but all of the old  green contours are gone and the bunkering is new and different. You will have to re-learn putting on them. The tee complexes are in the same location's but some drastic changes have been made to some, and some are about the same. The big change to the fairways was the switch from cool season turf to Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda. The incorporation of Santa Anna was the most important, and driving aspect of the project. Parts of fairways contours and shaping have opened up and provided some expanded landing areas and  sight lines, and some of the fairway bunkering has created different strategy's for all levels of players. All of the bunkers are different with bright white sand and ribboning texture to their edges. The angularity of the sand will give you a good consistent lie and the new bunkers are not nearly as deep as their predecessors.

Driving Range turned out really nice

All of this said, very few golf courses, either renovated or newly constructed,  open or re-open when they are perfectly mature. Granite Bay Golf Club is no exception. Therefore we have to protect the course while it is maturing. Some steps we will be taking are cart path only rules until we feel the course is ready for cart traffic. Additionally we will be playing preferred lies on the entire course until we feel you can play the ball down. We will all have to be diligent about properly repairing ball-marks on the greens as ball mark damage on brand new greens can be significant. Proper ball mark repair will go along way towards preventing poa annua encroachment as poa annua seed find it easy to germinate in a moist depression. 

First day of the upper practice green being open. 

Other strategies we will adopt is use of a target ring above the edge of the cup to help the young exposed edge of the hole with stability and moisture retention. Additionally we will continue with flag colors of  red, white & yellow for front, middle & back hole locations, but we will not be following the rotation we followed previously, as we will need the flexibility to move hole locations based on wear and health of the putting surface, not a prescribed hole rotation schedule. Expect tighter pin locations  then previously experienced at Granite Bay as well. This is purposeful, as a ball mark mitigation strategy. We hope to maintain speeds in the 9 foot range but will need to continue to feed these young greens to help  them establish and heal from the traffic they are about to endure. And for every action there is a reaction as healthy, growing grass can be slower grass. We'll use different maintenance strategies, such as light verticle mowing and grooming as well as light frequent sand topdressing to help with firmness and ball roll. 

Above image shows the target ring that we will be using in lieu of painting cup edges on our brand new greens.  The rings will  provide stability and moisture retention to the exposed edges of the new holes.

I'm excited about getting our members back on the golf course but at the same time worry about these very young playing surfaces. You can help again by properly repairing ball marks, and keeping you cart on the cart path not pulling partially off the path onto the turf which is all or our inclinations. Thanks again for your patience and help getting our new course through these first few months.

 

The Project 2021 - Update #21

Better Billy Bunkers

The Bunkers at Granite Bay Golf Club represent a significant portion of our course renovation project.  The current bunkers drainage system, liner and sand are over 13 years old and have more than reached their estimated lifespan.  They were constructed with what was at the time the best available technology, sand over a hard non-permeable polymer lining with an underlying drainage system. Over time this liner has failed allowing soil particles to mix with sand particles after winter storms, substantially slowing down the sands ability to drain which is the beginning of the end.  Some problems were the erosion of the faces and pooled water after rain storms. 

GBGC bunker erosion after a storm in 2011

In addition to providing poor playing conditions the bunkers required hours of maintenance work to repair them after a storm.

Since our bunkers were last renovated a new system, the Better Billy Bunker system, was devised.  Similar systems are used by virtually every high end course in the world and they create a water-permeable base for the entire bunker, while also helping hold sand to steep faces.  This system can allow up to 1,500 inches of water per hour to pass through the base.  One course in Virginia had hurricane Sandy drop 7 inches of water on its 120 bunkers.  Their crews completed their normal raking maintenance, and then spent a total of 1 extra man-hour cleaning up washed sand in the bunkers. There were just a few rivulets to be smoothed out, with a leaf rake. Previously this would have taken an additional 200+ hours of work.

So how is this magic accomplished?  This simplified image (from Dormie Network) illustrates the system.

The blue represents water which passes through the bunker sand and a porous layer of gravel into a drainage line at the bottom of the bunker, which transports the water away.

Steps to create these bunkers

After the bunker has been shaped, which in our case has been no small undertaking, drainage lines are installed allowing for 2 inches of gravel and 4 inches of sand.

Starting to spread gravel over drainage lines

Then 2 inches of gravel are spread

Gravel almost ready for polymer coating

Then a polymer binder is applied. This results in a sturdy pliable layer of glued gravel which allows water to pass through making the entire floor of the bunker, including the slopes, a permeable drainage field

Applying the polymer binder

The final step is sand installation and the finished bunker is revealed.

Newly shaped and designed "splash" bunker with a  Better Billy Bunker liner system and with Idaho White sand installed on hole #9 at Granite Bay Golf Club.

The Project 2021 - Update #20

Where's Waldo, uh George

The course renovation has entailed a fair amount of granite boulder removal, primarily to improve playability.  The removed (deconstructed) boulders have been used to provide materials for a number walls, etc. throughout the course.

You may be wondering if one of the course's iconic rock formations, George Washington, was spared.  We can report that it has not only been spared, but George and his entire rock formation have been highlighted with newly positioned and shaped bunkers.

If you aren't familiar with George, see if you can spot him in the picture below.  Once you do be sure to point him out to your guests.  (If you have difficulty, there is a hint below).

George Washington, Number 18 Fairway

If you still can't find him, here is a hint.  The red circle below is on the tip of his nose.

The Project 2021 - Update #19

 Golf Course Renovation Tour

This past Friday evening 5/21/21 Mike Nicoletti and I hosted our first GBGC Member tour of Granite Bay's 2021 golf course renovation since the project began over 90 days ago. We had over 30 participants and drove the course in no particular order covering progress, examples of design philosophy as well as answering any and all questions fielded by the Member Participants.

The tour lasted for just over an hour and we covered much of the course mostly highlighting green complexes that have been sodded and seeded. Additionally we covered bunker design and Better Billy Bunker liner, and the subtle changes that have been made to the golf course to both enhance the challenge for the low handicapper while creating a more open enjoyable experience for the mid to upper handicapper. Kevin Marshall will be scheduling another tour soon and we look forward to sharing even more progress at that time. Until then here are some pictures of the tour and the areas we looked at. 

Salvador Rodriguez joined by his brother Eduardo addressed the Members briefly during the tour and enthusiastically explained some of the tweaks he has envisioned for the course. 

Above are some talking points we went over with the group at the beginning of the tour.

We started the tour at the new Tilleys Putting Green and Patio highlighting one aspect of our scope of work which is enhancement of the outdoor activity facilities.

Tilleys Practice Green. The putting surface itself was recently seeded & growing in nicely.

Next we looked at the sightline opening up on #4 green. I've used this example before but if you recall prior to re-shaping the left hand fairway bunker you could not see the front edge of either the green nor the bunker.  Now you can.

Next we looked at the beginning portion of the erosion control rocks in front of the #3 green complex. Jay Abbott identified this erosion threat early in the design process and decided on using  granite rocks harvested right here on the property.

We also looked at the newly sodded green complex on #15.

Next we turned around and looked at the green complex on #13 that had actually been sodded that very day. Notice the openness of  both of the  green complexes, #15 & #13, which again is a main design concept.

A recent aerial view highlighting a birds eye view of the greens complexes on #10, #12, #15 and the very right side of #13. You can see it all starting to come together.

The Project 2021 - Update #18

 

Bentgrass

Our renovated greens are being seeded with a 50/50 mix of two creeping bentgrass varieties that are intriguingly named 007 and 777.  Why bentgrass, how are they developed, and why these names?

Bentgrass is an ideal grass for greens if your local environment can support it.  It can withstand foot traffic even if closely mown (down to 1/10 of an inch). Bent, by nature, is a cool season grass which is why they have been uncommon in the South.  Granite Bay’s cool nighttime temperatures allow bentgrass, especially the newer varieties, to flourish.

007 and 777 are part of a new generation of “Super Bents” that are more disease and heat resistant than their predecessors.

#1 Green bentgrass seed germinating and visible 7 days after initial seeding. 12 to 14 days after seeding we will start to lightly roll and mow the new greens.

How New Varieties Are Developed

How bentgrass varieties are developed is fascinating.  If you guessed mad scientists in a lab, you’d be partially correct.  They were developed by scientists in an outside lab but they aren’t mad, they are patient.

New  varieties are grown from samples collected actual golf courses.  This has been going on at Rutgers University for over 70 years.  Some quotes from www.bentgrassdoctor.com (the website of Dr. R.H. Hurley, the world’s premier expert on bentgrass).

Over the past forty years turfgrass breeders at Rutgers have visited hundreds of old well established golf courses throughout the United States. During a site visit small patches of putting green turf are collected. The only plants identified for collecting are ones that appear to be attractive, fine textured, dense, upright growing and free of disease.

Some of the older putting greens observed are over eighty-five (85) years old, dating back to the 1920’s, and we feel that some plants collected have been growing and surviving, under the wear and tear, on actual greens, for generations.

The goal has always been to find the idealistic 'one in a million' rare bentgrass plant -- those unique plants that display improved qualities with special adaptive traits that have allowed these plants to survive on a golf green, under extensive foot traffic and low mowing, for many, many years.

These promising wild varieties of bentgrass are brought back to the laboratory (turf farm) and observed for a few years.  Perhaps only two-percent of the promising varieties will be kept for further study with up to 98 percent of the samples discarded. These two-percent are propagated, studied, and grown to produce breeder seed.  And yes, this takes time:

Having patience is most important, as it typically takes an investment in time of approximately 12 to 15 years to collect germplasm, evaluate, breed, and commercially release one new variety.

Every architect and golf course builder has their own style of seeding greens. Basically the process is add pre plant fertility to the newly shaped and compacted  sand mix surface, seed at the specified rate, and incorporate  the fertility and seed into top 1/8" of mix. Then you start to irrigate very lightly on the hour during the day to prevent the young seedlings from drying out.

Major Advantages

So now that you have 007 and 777 varieties, what are their major advantages over previous generations of bent?

·        Improved disease tolerance

·        Improved drought and heat tolerance (777 is being planted in Texas)

·        Denser growth that limits poa annua establishment

So, what about those unique names?

Dr. Hurley’s first improved creeping bentgrass variety was named L-93 after the year it was first commercialized in 1993. 

 For his next bentgrass variety, the experimental designation was DSB (Dollar Spot Resistant Bentgrass) and the year it was to be commercially released was 2007.  Following Hurley’s earlier precedence of naming a bentgrass variety by the year it was to be released, the commercial name for DSB bentgrass was identified as 007. 

 Now, with Hurley's latest creeping bentgrass the commercial name will be 777 after October 2017 when this new “super bent” variety will be commercially released for sale to golf courses.

 

 Thanks to Ed Reeder for researching and writing this update while I was in a irrigation ditch. 

The Project 2021 - Update #16

 Upper Putting Green

Now is your opportunity to experience something close to "Masters putting".  The Masters greens typically Stimp between 13 and 15.  Our upper putting green is currently Stimp'ing between 17 and 18.

Upper Putting Green

You are welcome to use the Upper Putting Green until its renovation begins.  Try a few putts and begin to appreciate what the pros face in Augusta.  If you sink a few putts feel free to be a bit smug in that you were able to do it on an even faster green than they face

The Project 2021 - Update #15

 "As the essence of golf is variety, it would not be wise to be too didactic as to what does constitute the ideal golf course, but my suggestions for it would be very much on the lines of what I wrote twenty years ago, and as I can hardly improve on that, I set it down here as it was originally written.

General Principles

1. The course where possible, should be arranged in two loops of nine holes.
2. There should be a large proportion of good two-shot holes, and at least four one-shot holes.
3. There should be little walking between the greens and tees, and the course should be arranged so that in the first instance there is always a slight walk from forwards from the green to the next tee: then the holes are sufficiently elastic to be lengthened in the future if necessary.
4. The greens and fairways should be sufficiently undulating, but there should be no hill climbing.
5. Every hole should be different in character.
6. There should be a minimum of blindness for the approach shots.
7. The course should have beautiful surroundings and all of the artificial features should have so natural an appearance that a stranger is unable to distinguish them from nature itself.
8. There should be a sufficient number of heroic carries from the tee, but the course should be arranged so that the weaker player with the loss of a stroke, or portion of a stroke, shall always have an alternate route open to him.
9. There should be infinite variety in the strokes required to play the various holes - that is, interesting brassie shots, iron shots, pitch and run up shots.
10. There should be a complete absence of the annoyance and irritation caused by the necessity of searching for lost balls.
11. The course should be so interesting that even the scratch man is constantly stimulated to improve his game in attempting shots he has hitherto been unable to play.
12. The course should be so arranged that the long handicap player or even the absolute beginner should be able to enjoy his round in spite of the fact that he is piling up a big score. In other words the beginner should not be continually harassed by losing strokes from playing out of sand bunkers. The layout should be so arranged that he loses strokes because he is making wide detours to avoid hazards.
13. The course should be equally good during the winter and summer, the texture of the greens and fairways should be perfect and the approaches should have the same consistency as the greens."

(Alister MacKenzie - The Spirit of Saint Andrews pp.41-42)

Golf Course Design

There is a big difference of taking care of a golf course and building one. Equally different is the building of a golf course and the renovation of a golf course. Some golf  courses,  like a home, have great bones, are built on a phenomenal piece of land in a wonderful area in the world, but just need a few little tweaks that can take it to an entirely different level. I have always held  we only needed to get the turf right to take this property to the next level. I dont believe I was wrong, but lacked the insight into what can really take this course to the next level.  Now that I am seeing the transition of what is being  done here at Granite Bay, I am equally excited about the course design revisions as I am about  the conversion of turf varieties.

An analogy for this  or any renovation process would be like comparing the work to a classic symphony or piece of classical music. The original composer's of Granite Bay were Mark Parsinen, Dave Cook, Jim Fitzpatrick and Robert Trent Jones II with his lead designer at the time, Kyle Phillips. The revisions  to the piece, are now being composed by Jay Abbott & Salvador Rodriguez who have built and remodeled over 400 golf courses between the two of them. The conductor of this symphony is the lead shaper Steve Page. Steve's baton or paint brush is a D5 caterpillar and and eye for shaping golf courses that extends 31 years.

Steve Page, Granite Bay Golf Club 4/22/21

Steve is a third generation golf course builder and shaper who has worked on five continents including 7 years in Asia, 4 of which were in China. He has worked on close to 50 projects for golf course architects like Jack Nicklaus, Brian Curley, Tom Fazio, Perry Dye, Robert Muir Graves, Tim Jackson & David Kahn, Arnold Palmer, Tom Weiskoph, & Chet Williams. 

Steve fine tuning the shape and movement of #2 green in early April 2021.

The aforementioned Dr. Alistair MacKenzie – the mastermind behind Augusta National and Cypress Point and known as the “course doctor,” – died in 1934 before seeing his vision for the The Ohio State Scarlet Course in Columbus come to fruition. He completed the original drawings and supervised the work of contouring the greens, but what the course eventually became didn’t feature his distinct design traits. "To get a better understanding of a bunker style that MacKensize would have developed," "lead shaper, Steve Page went on a tour of the remaining West Coast golf courses that still show the MacKenzie influence. During that tour, the "what would MacKenzie have done" or the new Scarlet bunker style was developed." 

In 2004 Jack Nicklaus sent Steve on that trip to study Dr. MacKenzie's work and bring it back to both Muirfield Village and The Scarlet Course at Ohio State University where Steve simultaneously worked on the shaping of both courses renovation's, both for Jack Nicklaus.  It goes without saying  that Steve is a student and  big fan of Dr. MacKenzie, and has brought his skill, experience and admiration of Dr. Mackenzie to Granite Bay. Jack Nicklaus told Steve once "you know Steve, not every bunker has to be a masterpiece. Sometimes a bunker can just be a bunker." And Salvador Rodriguez upon gazing at Steve's renovation of GBGC's #1 bunker said, "well Steve, you'll never build a better bunker then that.", and I said wait until you see #2,  which after seeing Sal said, "Steve, you'll never build a better bunker then that."  

Enjoy some pictures of Steve's work below both here at GBGC and elsewhere.

New bunker #5 at GBGC 

New bunker #2 GBGC. Form following function, the ribboning texture to the edges are of course a design feature but are functional as well with the main finger in the center of the bunker providing easy functional access  into and out of the bunker from above.

New bunker #1 GBGC. Same easy access design feature in the middle of the bunker

Steve Pages work and photography in New Zealand for Jack Nicklaus

New Zealand for Jack Nicklaus

Costa Palmas Mexico for Robert Trent Jones II

 Steve Page's work and photography, Singapore 2021

Singapore 2021